Scion: The Sound of Silence

Fate has delivered the heroes the world wanted, now it has delivered the heroes the world needs...

Frith and Ty decide to go home, to see their mothers and to pick up some stuff they’d left after leaving the army; namely weapons and armour. They debate along the way whether or not to tell their mothers what’s going on. It’s a short debate. They’re both too honest to keep things from their mothers. It becomes less of a matter of whether or not and more a matter of how and when to let their beloved mothers know.

Along the way Frith’s phone rings. It’s Horace Farrow, returning her call. The conversation is a little stilted. The cowboy is clearly surprised and neither side really has a lot to say other than letting the other know that they’re there. Farrow seems to make a better impression that Donnie Rhodes did and the call ends with the two having networked a little, with an understanding that each is available for help should the other need. There is no thought, however, or ‘teaming up’. Each is busy with their own thing.

Ty also receives a call, from Colonel Truman, his old commanding officer. It appears that the old soldier considers Ty still in the military, and Ty’s resignation as ‘just a phase’ that he’s bound to grow out of. In either case he asks Ty for a favour. A soldier from the 41st Airbourne Rangers, on loan to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (on the hush hush) as a scout and observer has failed to report in. Truman asks Ty to go find him. Ty, ever the good soldier, says he will and Truman sends the dossier to Ty’s phone.

Steve Blairre, said Ranger, was on loan to the Bureau due to his extensive skill in survival and ability to stay hidden in the field for long periods at a time. He’s there as a watcher, deployed to Waco, Texas, where another group has set up where David Koresh’s Branch Davidian cult had once been. This has, obviously, made the locals nervous and when the Bureau got wind that the new group were smuggling in weapons they asked for help and received Blairre. He was supposed to watch and report but stopped reporting in a while ago. That makes sense enough to the cousins. What immediately stands out to Frith is that Blairre’s handler, his go between, is not located in Waco but in Washington DC, too far away to be of any use. That makes no sense to her at all. Ty, less experienced in such things, defers to Frith’s instincts on this and they both make a note to look into it after they’ve visited home.

The cousins arrive in Kellogg to find their mothers delighted to see them at first. It doesn’t take long, however, before their mothers become pensive. It’s clear that something’s worrying them. Ty and Frith go out for supplies and Ty finds out that, despite being gone for years, the women of the town still remember him and at the supermarket Ty is cornered by one of the girls he used to date, with children of her own now, still intent on making him the baby-daddy. He flees and returns home to dinner and family time. Then Beth and Lisa do the unthinkable. They seperate Frith and Ty, each mother taking their child aside, to talk to them alone. This prove sto be a bad idea. They confront their children, stating that they know the truth of who their childrens’ fathers were and are. They admit to lying to their children. Their romances with Tyr and Foreseti were not one-night-stands but longer romances that ended when the two gods revealed who and what they were. Both offered to take their lovers away to somewhere better, perhaps even Asgard itself. But when Tyr admitted to being married Lisa refused to go with him, refusing to be like her oldest sister and giving up her dignity in return for comfort. Beth, also angry, refused to leave her sister and gave Forseti the same marching orders Lisa had given Tyr. Both women demanded that the gods leave their children alone and never return.

Then it all goes wrong.

Without Ty to soften her cold logic, Frith soon has her mother in hysterical tears and throwing things at her before throwing her out of the house in a sobbing wreck. Ty fares no better as his mother uses logic, to which he has no Frith there to deflect. Fortunately for Ty the sounds of Beth’s hysterical rampage de-rails Lisa’s own line of thought and Lisa heads in to try to calm Beth down, leaving Ty to take Frith out back and into the woods while they both try to work out just what has gone on.

The mood in the forest behind the Lawson property is anything but jovial. Both Scions are very hurt at the lies their mothers have told them. Despite their mothers’ pleas that the lies were to make things easier on them, that explaining that their father’s were gods would have been impossible to believe, the Scions are angry. Despite the explanations from the Scions that they are what they are and always had been, that they’d only have been killed if they had never been Visited, Beth and Lisa remain distraught. Ty, in a fit of fury, punches a tree with all of his not inconsiderable might, shattering it. He kicks the stump far into the distance, shattering his own foot into uselessness and then being amazed to watch it re-knit itself from a bloody mess into healthy pink skin. But even that isn’t enough to settle things down.

After a little more eating and drinking Frith and Ty call Hans over to ask him some more questions. Frith, initially rather intolerant of Hans, is convinced by Ty that Hans is simply a man who is doing a job that he’s not qualified to do. Rather than causing her to be further irritated by the man, Frith’s irritation is transferred onto Odin who she feels should never have asked a man with no skills in a thing to do that thing. A poor allocation of assets which is less Hans’ fault and more the fault of his patron.

Before long the two Scions decide to head back to Las Vegas as soon as possible. When Hans advises that he is at their disposal, to take them to Las Vegas and beyond if need be, they advise that all they need is a ride back to Vegas. Hans is happy to comply and he drives them back to where the plane has been left, just beyond the German/Swiss border. On the trip Hans and Ty talk and Hans is obviously much more comfortable around Ty’s easygoing charisma than Frith’s staring and opens up while they drive. Frith, on the other hand, has time to read a number of books Hans has given her and manages to polish off the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda and Havamal. The benefits of Epic Intelligence are immediately useful to Frith.

Hans wishes the cousins well and they part on good terms and the plane flies the Scions back to Las Vegas where Ty fails to get far into trying to read the Havamal. Comfortable in the knowledge that Frith will probably know the answers to any of his questions, Ty doesn’t lose any sleep over not getting through the book. In fact neither of them have felt any particular need to sleep since meeting their parents.

Returning to Las Vegas, the pair are immediately aware of greater security in the airport and on the street. A nervous taxi driver advises that, since the Viking ship crash, taxi fares to the Vegas strip will have a $10 surcharge. He’s nervous about going. Everyone’s nervous about being on the strip. Frith and Ty, ever frugal, are outraged by this and simply ask to be driven to near the strip where they can walk the rest of the way. On the way they notice a greater police presence, and a number of helicopters flying over the city. The mortals may not know what is going in but they’re certainly afraid about a flying ship, undead Vikings and the people who got killed during the bizarre battle a few nights ago. On walking onto the strip, Frith and Ty note that even tourists aren’t keen on being on the strip, much less the natives. Even during the day. In fact the usually sunny city is overcast, with dark, sinister clouds in the sky adding an oppressive pall over the city. The city that never sleeps, where the party never ends, has been brought to a still. People walking from one hotel to another, even in daylight, do so in groups and quickly. Locals don’t dawdle as the more reckless tourists do. They walk with a purpose. Las Vegas, it seems, isn’t as much fun as it was.

Returning to the Luxor, the Scions realise that, while it’s unsettling outside, inside it’s business as usual. The hotels are in full swing, perhaps partying extra hard in an attempt to make people forget what’s happened outside and the lost lives and the huge hole in the street outside where the Viking ship landed and tore up the area. It’s a bit surreal, but Ty is not to be thwarted. He wants to go find a fight and try out his new weapon. The two have dinner at the hotel (their ban only ran for 24 hours so they’re allowed back) and decide to go shopping first to buy some clothing. After their physical frames have grown, thanks to their Jotunblut purview, the two Scions need new threads. Ty vaguely hopes that, between hotels, there will be something for him to fight but it doesn’t turn out to be the case. The cousins shop and are just returning to their hotel, on their way to the elevators, when their attentions are drawn to one of the rooms off the foyer. Usually a stage for acts to play, it’s not in use as such right now and so a huge-screen-TV is installed for people to watch while they drink and relax. The Scions feel a cold sensation run up their spines and into their shoulders and hackles. Something Is Going To Happen<tm>. A monumental moment is on them and the duo recognise Fate’s pull towards it, even if they don’t understand it.

On the television is the visage of Donnie Rhodes, Jr and the other five members of his band (but mostly Donnie). Ty moves closer, to hear what Donnie has to say. Frith remains back, not interested in Donnie’s words nearly as much as she is in his body language and how he holds himself. She knows that Ty will tell her what Donnie says anyway, and she feels that his body language will tell a better story of his motives than his words.

On television Donnie ‘outs’ himself and his band, explaining that they’re the children of gods and about the coming war. He states that they’re here to save the people but Ty quickly notes that Donnie states his intentions in a way that minimises the mortal populace, making it clear that Donnie considers he and his companions (but mostly himself) better than the mortals who are more or less helpless cattle. Donnie introduces his companions and gives a small spiel about the various gods that Visited them. Yukiko first (Frith notes this as both a means of showing off how gentlemanly he is with a ‘ladies first’ mentality, and also a means of displaying a sexual claim on Susano-o’s daughter), then Brigitte (who Donnie has no sexual interest in, likely because she’s too strong for him). Then Eric who just seems happy and proud to be there, and Aaron which is punctuated by a brief pause as Donnie slightly balks in describing Tezcatlipoca. Then Horace who both Ty and Frith realise was introduced last (and his father described simply as ‘Horus, of the Egyptian gods’) in a means to distance Horace from attention. Both Frith and Ty realise that Horace is the probable leader of the group and that Donnie doesn’t like not being the whole show on his own.

The people watching the television begin to react. Most of them believe, even if they don’t know it. They’re starting to get twitchy, to worry, to instinctively stand closer together in a huddle for mutual protection from what they’re hearing. Ty is furious at Donnie’s perceived treatment of the people as helpless and useless and leaps up onto a fountain and gives the people a speech, speaking as a military man, a leader and a hero. He tells them that they’re going to pull together, that they’re not helpless and are going to make their own mark on the world, that they won’t stand helpless before all of these events but will stand strong and take on their future with honour, integrity and strength. Impassioned, Ty channels his Legend for the first time (gaining 7 successes in all) and becomes a leader to the people, an embodiment of his father as Tyr the leader. The people stop to listen to him talk. So do the gamblers. Everyone who can hear him stops to listen, even in the never-quiet-casino floor. And then, one by one, they begun to understand. Ty is right. They’re not helpless. They can work together and they can be a part of the world to come. Ty has led and they follow, picking him up and bearing him through the hotel like a king. He is taken to the bar and for the next few hours is surrounded by people who want to talk to him and hear him lead them. No lewd propositions. No sleazy promises of representation and riches. He is their leader and they his people.

When the gathering comes to an end Ty finds Frith and they compare notes. Both are angry that the other band of Scions have made a mess and then left town, leaving the people afraid. Both are angry that Donnie has minimised the role of mortals in things to come. They both decide that if the previous Scions have left Las Vegas afraid, broken and unsafe that they are going to make it safe and unafraid again.

It begins with more patrolling. Frith and Ty shower, change and head out onto the street to patrol for anything or anyone who might endanger the people of Las Vegas. It’s in the small hours when they encounter something. A fire giant, axe on shoulder and sack in one hand is busy heading for a bank ATM. Ty looks eagerly to Frith who nods and Ty, wasting no time talking or posturing, takes out his weapon Jötunnbita and transforms it into a sword. Then he’s on the attack and battle is joined. Frith, not so eager to get into battle, follows after with Peace Bringer in hand. Ty wins (Frith only hits the giant once, for no significant damage) and kills the giant, which leaves nothing but scorched concrete and a blackened heart which Ty destroys and dumps in a nearby dumpster. On discovering that the sack is full of money (from previous ATM attacks) Frith and Ty decide to turn the sack in to the local police. The local police are confused but take the money, unused to such honest and public mindedness in their city. The rest of the night passes without Titanspawn but the Scions note that people out at night are nervous, skittish and not prone to straying. A few hoods are out in the night, taking advantage of the confusion and the fear. They don’t challenge Frith and Ty. Like an oasis of protection, law and order in the city the two Scions send lesser criminals slinking away into the night, leaving the streets all the safer for others to pass.

On returning to the Luxor Frith decides that what the people need is to reclaim their streets, for the party to start back up and for Las Vegas to be free of fear. She decides to convince the hoteliers in the city to stage a huge street party, a festival that will bring people out and partying in the streets once again. A means to revel in the frightening night and to end the fear that keeps them inside. Deciding that the first step must be the mayor, Frith calls some of her connections in Washington to grease the wheels and make a meeting with Las Vegas’ mayor more likely. She and Ty attend city hall to find the place a mess of chaos, with far too many people doing far too many things. It’s harried and disorderly, all in response to what the Viking ship and the fight in the street had meant.

The mayor’s frantic receptionist, frazzled and overworked already, advises Frith that the mayor will see her at 10:30, Frith’s connections certainly having greased the wheels for her. In the large crowd of people waiting to see the mayor a furious local businessman demands to know why Frith, who has just shown up, can see the mayor when he’s been waiting for hours. Ty tries to talk him down and is immediately the target of the man’s anger and yelling. Ty loses his temper but fights his instincts, deciding that instead of hitting the man (which will serve no real purpose aside from short term gratification) to speak up. Using Inspirational Figure, he gives another speech similar to his one in the Luxor, taking charge once more and advising that what needs to happen is that everyone has to do their part, and that everyone can help each other and succeed together. After the speech, and buoyed by the Willpower point Ty’s powers have given, the mayoral office’s workers work more fluidly together and the frustrated people who are still waiting at least wait more patiently.

Frith sees the mayor, meeting his aide Tobey Jenkins first before meeting the man himself. The mayor has had calls from a number of high level Washington politicos and is happy to see Frith, who he considers to be here to help. Frith advises that she’s here to help and outlines her plans for a festival in the street, noting that shutting down the strip’s street and allowing a party in the streets will require local government’s permission. The mayor is only too happy to sign off on the rights for a street party but notes that getting the hoteliers to come together and agree to work together is not going to be likely. He becomes pensive and thoughtful and weighs something in his mind. Then explains that there’s one man who could help, and that nothing in Las Vegas really happened without his OK. He promises to make an appointment with this man for Frith, advising her to go to the Flamingo Hotel and ask to be shown to the penthouse where the man will be. Frith agrees to go and asks the mayor if she can be of any help to him. The mayor advises that he’s had various agencies on the phone, wanting to ferry in military personnel to lock down Las Vegas after what may have been a terrorist attack (which is how the Viking boat debacle is obviously being seen from outside) and asks Frith to pull what strings she can to avoid Las Vegas becoming a military zone. Frith promises to make some calls and then leaves, collecting Ty and leaving the now much more calm and organised city hall with her cousin in tow.

The two Scions go to the Flamingo Hotel and ask the receptionist to conduct them to the penthouse. The receptionist becomes vague and confused for a moment, as if not certain what she’s hearing. As if on auto-pilot she shows them through to the elevator which conducts them through to the penthouse. They knock, are invited to enter by a male voice and enter to end up in a penthouse that probably hasn’t been upgraded since it was first built. It’s like stepping back in time, seeing the Flamingo as it must have been back at the start. Photographs on the wall are in black and white and there are various antique items in here. The man in the room is dressed like a 1940s gangster, which is exactly what he is. He introduces himself as Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel and is the man who founded the Flamingo and Las Vegas.

Siegel explains that he was not killed by mob enforcers, but was instead sacrificed by his friend and partner Meyer Lansky, who was a son of Hermes. Lansky bound Siegel to Las Vegas in a role similar to the Fisher King of Arthurian legend. While Siegel is bound to Las Vegas and his room in the Flamingo, which he can’t leave, Las Vegas can never be destroyed or ended. Thus Lansky had created a permanent mecca to gambling (a favourite of his father) at Siegel’s expense. The rather resigned Siegel explains that, now and again, Hermes shows up and offers to set him free if he can beat him in a card game. As Siegel has no real chance to beat a god in a card game he’s stuck where he is. Hermes’ son’s sacrificing of a friend, and Hermes’ taunting of the captive Siegel, does nothing to make the Greek pantheon seem any better in the eyes of the two Aesir Scions.

Frith outlines her plan to Siegel who agrees that it’s a good one, and is struck at how honest and willing to help the people (rather than glory grab) the two Aesir are and asks for the name of their parents, which they give. Siegel’s opinion of Scions is somewhat softened by the pair of Aesir, who seem only to want to help the people, and so he promises to help. While he’s the guarantee of Las Vegas’ immortality Siegel also has some influence over it. He’s a part of it and it is a part of him. He advises that the hoteliers will arrive at the conference room in the Flamingo the following night. They won’t know why, but each will have their own ideas as to why they’re going. Such is Siegel’s slower, more subtle control over things. Frith will then be able to speak to them and try to convince them to help with her festival idea, which she has decided to call the Festival of Lights (as in ‘lighting the darkness’). The Scions learn that Siegel is wounded, and that the great gash in the street left by the Viking ship has wounded the city. As the city is wounded, so is Siegel. Siegel then wishes the pair well and they leave.

With nothing to do for he rest of the day, nor the early evening of the following night, the two Scions do what they can. Frith busies herself in researching the hoteliers, the better to make her pitch, and Ty walks the streets helping anyone who needs it. Ty is again amazed at the difference he makes in the lives of others, as just for a short while he makes people feel safe again on an individual, one-for-one basis. Frith works out how she’s going to convince the hoteliers of her plans and also invites Tobey Jenkins along from the mayor’s office, the better to keep the mayor in the loop.

Frith and Ty are at the meeting room just after Jenkins arrives and they have a brief moment to speak with him before the hoteliers arrive. Rich, powerful and in many cases bitter rivals, they are here (thanks to Siegel’s influence over all things in Las Vegas) but not certain they want to stay long. Frith greets them and then invokes Peace Bringer. She holds the ‘peace’ side up and taps the staff on the floor, invoking its Peaceful Meeting spell. The effect is obvious to her, and to Ty. While nobody necessarily feels any kinder towards their rivals, everyone sits and keeps peace while Frith speaks. She outlines what she wants to do and, more importantly to her and to them, how it impacts on them and their bottom lines. Fear in the streets is not a good way to do business, nor to encourage tourism. Between her Epic Manipulation (not to mention her planning, and her ability to judge the Nature of each hotelier so she could alter her sales pitch to each one) and the spell the hoteliers cooperate. They may not like each other but this is a common problem that affects them all. They work out how best to make this festival happen, including how to best advertise it, build hype and get people there. They decide to spend money in order to make money and after a mere hour of talking peacefully they have decided how to make Frith’s idea a reality. Then Frith invites her cousin to talk again.

Ty is, once more, awesome as he takes hold of the hearts of the people in the room. Frith’s logic is unassailable and her plan is the way forward. That’s fact. Ty leads the people in the room to want to follow it, and earns their loyalty (for now) instead of just their begrudging help. The hoteliers leave, keen and eager to see this thing done and to take their city back from the grip of fear. Frith and Ty are both beginning to understand the kind of power that they can wield; Frith’s logic and ability to cause people to see that her way is their only way ahead and Ty in earning their loyalty and deference.

Ty and Frith patrol. Hard. This party is not going to work if anyone, anyone at all, attacks or tries to ruin it. Over the next 24 hours they again become beacons of law, protection and lights in the gloom of Las Vegas. Petty criminals withdraw, unwilling to challenge. The city builds a stage over the great hole in the street, both to hide it and to encourage people to dance, and the hotels start setting up in the streets. Everyone is hyped. Drinks are half price. So is the food. Trinkets are given out for free by the hotels. The festival has a feeling like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, with bright colours, festive outfits and drinking. It’s a success. People are out on the street. Even once it gets dark. And then Ty mounts the stage, high up where he can be seen, and he makes another speech. Again he channels his Legend. Again he becomes more than just a man. He becomes a concept, an embodiment (he also scores 10 successes). His speech stops the party. The revellers crowd around to hear what he has to say. He speaks his message of hope and strength and unity and they listen, spellbound. When Ty stops listening they cheer. And cheer. A roar erupts, as hundreds of voices take up the chant. And from above, the clouds are pushed away and the sky is seen. The darkness, the oppression and the fear, are banished as Las Vegas is brought to one place as Frith convinces the hoteliers to do the impossible and cooperate. They are then won by the words of Ty, who convinces them to do the unthinkable and to not fear the unknown. By their actions Las Vegas is saved. Frith has shown the way, Ty has shown the people and the people save themselves.

While Ty is kept on stage by the revellers until the end of the 24 hour street party, Frith is researching and checking the media. It’s all good. Ty’s speech has gone viral already. The media are in a frenzy. Unlike the prior band, Frith and Ty have not announced their divinity on the public stage. To do so would detract from the festival and what they want to accomplish. They’re happy enough with what they’ve done, that right has been re-established and that fear has been cast away. On her researching Frith finds a short video interview with Horace Farrow, wherein the cowboy, when asked about the festival, tips his hat and offers sincere kudos to two people who have shown a city how to save itself. Frith recognises, from his body language, Horace’s regret and guilt that it wasn’t his band doing it. Donnie Rhodes, Jr could not be reached for comment.

Deciding to offer him some trust, Frith calls Hans Gruber and asks the expediter to deliver a message to the cowboy; her and Ty’s names, their contact details and the names of their parents.

Then she settles in to watch a city free of fear. It all ends with Frith and Ty walking off saying “Our work here is done. It’s time to leave.” “There’s another city somewhere that needs us.”

Game One

Ty Lawson and his cousin, Frith Lawson, after leaving the army, have made their way to Las Vegas intending on a big blow-out and a week long bender before knuckling down with plans to start their own security consultant business. Their first night is a rousing success and they begin the game the morning after the night before, completely shattered after a big night out.

After suffering through the morning, and checking to ensure they didn’t have any more tattoos or piercings than they started with, the two cousins have tried (and failed) to remember most of what happened the night before (and Ty wonders why he has the name ‘Steve’ written on his arm, along with a phone number and a love heart). After a couple of disturbing flashback memories they both decide that it’s best not to remember anything and pointedly give up trying. Some things are best left in the past.

In the afternoon, after a quick meal of greasy food to help their hang overs, they decide to hit the gym and burn off their hangovers with some endorphins and exercise. Following this they decide on a big, big, biiiiiiig meal. After being advised by the staff at the Luxor, where they’re staying, that they’ve been banned after some kind of altercation the night before that they don’t remember, Frith remembers a bar and grill place not far from the Luxor. It’s roof-top dining, with a great view of the street, and they’re rewarded with enormous servings of ribs and beer. They happily start to pig out, enjoying their freedom and their time together, and are about to ask for second helpings when the waitress serving them screams and points out onto the street below. Ty and Frith peer over, the same as anyone else would.

Unfolding on the street is the end game of the Long Road to Heaven. Kane Taoka, wearing the black feather shroud about his shoulders, is screaming in the street, head thrown back and seeming to glow from the inside out with moonlight and lightning as he utilises the shroud to steal his mother’s power. They watch a massive red haired man (Eric Donner) throw himself at the figure only to ricochet off with no effect at all.

And then the massive viking longboat, made of fingernails, floating on out of the sky bearing a legion of fallen Norse warriors.

Kane is quickly overrun by the vikings who attack anyone in the way. With nothing to do but to fight, the six Scions down on the street do battle. Each channels their Legend and Ty and Frith see them in ways that no mortal will or could. The cowboy, coat flaring like justice and glowing like the noon day sun, shoots and slashes his way into the fight. The picture of beauty and love, borne aloft by the wings of an angel, is all but impossible to ignore for his heartbreaking appeal. The big redhead is like a giant of legend, powerful blows scattering his enemies before him as, along side him, the Japanese woman moves through the battle like water, flowing between barriers and dropping enemy after enemy with her blade that moves faster than the eye can see. The besuited man, fighting with scalpels in each hand, pounces and dodges like a jaguar, ferocious and merciless as a hunting cat and the strange woman in the grave diggers coat and top hat opens the way between life and death itself, raising the fallen to send back at the Norsemen.

Where the mortals flee, unable to understand what they’re seeing, Ty and Frith watch. They don’t know what they’re seeing, can’t explain it, but they know that something beyond the mortal ken is happening down there. And as the band of Scions on the street push the Norse warriors back and force them to flee in their longboat Ty and Frith realise that the mortals are all gone, and that somehow they alone were able to stay and watch and understand where all others have fled. The street is like a ghost town.

Enter Hans Gruber, who advises the pair that they must come with him. He tells them enough of what is going on to convince them that they are in danger, and that six gods and six Scions will surely bring more Titanspawn who will kill two unprepared young Scions.

Ty is curious. Frith is skeptical. Hans doesn’t care, as long as they come with him. He sounds more desperate than convincing, has clearly never done this before, but they go with him and away from danger.

Mostly.

Hans has a plane waiting. He, Ty and Frith have boarded the private jet, which is just starting to taxi away, when a trio of fire giants arrives too late to stop them. The giants, unable to catch the plane, take out their frustrations on the SUV Hans had delivered the cousins to the airport with. They make short work of it in almost no time at all. Ty is alarmed. Frith remains fairly hostile and unwilling to be convinced. She knows that something is happening, but is certain that Hans is trying to convert she and Ty into some kind of religious cult that will war on “monsters” (translations, people that don’t fit in with the cult’s desires). But the plane is away and Hans leaves the cousins to their own devices, to talk and think. Ty and Frith discuss their concerns that this is some kind of scam or human made holy war, rather than Hans’ notions of a celestial war on actual monsters. They mostly sleep on the plane ride, though, so Hans has a chance to try and recoup his spirit after seemingly failing to enrol the pair in how lucky they are and that they’re the children of gods. He’s glad for the respite.

The plane lands in Switzerland. Somehow, mystically, Hans passes through customs without being noticed. The cousins are alarmed, and decide to pass through customs to prove they were there (the better for their concerns that the “cult” will prevent them from leaving) and Hans takes them to another SUV. He drives into Germany and to a small town called Wolfsheim, a charming little old fashioned town with old style Bavarian type buildings. Their hotel, the Wolfs Mantle Tavern, is a converted hunting lodge. Hans offers the cousins rooms but they want to get this over with and get to their meetings as soon as possible, the better to challenge the notion that their fathers are gods and this is anything but some kind of strange sham. Hans agrees and takes them on a drive into the Black Forest, which surrounds Wolfsheim. His instructions are simple: walk into the forest until you get lost. You’ll become seperated and once you do your fathers will find you.

Skeptical to the last the pair walk until they’re lost. Despite being no more than a foot or so apart at any time the pair are somehow seperated and find themselves in the Dark Forest. Not in the mortal world, not in Overworld, they each wander in search of the other and find their fathers, who have waited in this place in hopes that they will be harder to find and their children harder to track down by Titanspawn. Not that it’s much safer in here than in the mortal world…

Ty enters a clearing and finds Tyr waiting, hefting a spear in his one hand and dressed in the manner of a Norse warrior. Having taken a tree branch earlier, for a makeshift weapon should he need one, Ty is somewhat surprised to find Tyr. Tyr explains that he is Ty’s father and when challenged by Ty further explains that he would have done well by Ty’s mother but that she would not have him, severing her relationship with him. The war errupted in earnest not long after and Tyr had been too busy fighting to come and see Ty or his mother at all.

Tyr challenges Ty to do battle, his spear versus Ty’s branch. Ty obliges and attacks and the two of them fight, Tyr easily Ty’s superior but this isn’t about mere winning. As the fight progresses it also changes. The weapons change. Spears to axes to swords to daggers to staffs to polearms. From foot to cavalry to tanks to planes, the pair fight through every kind of war that man has conceived of, from field encounters to trenches and mechanised battle before Tyr ends the battle by winning. Ty, awed by what has just happened, believes. Tyr expresses his pride for his son, who while loving war, also loves being on the righteous side. He hands over the spear, which he names Jötunnbita, Giant Biter, and explains that as well as channelling the power of War, the weapon is perfectly balanced, supernaturally potent and will change shape into any melee weapon Ty could imagine. Ty, still awed, is sent on his way to return to Frith believing finally that this is all real.

Frith finds Forseti waiting patiently, bearing a carved staff in his hands. Their meeting is less friendly. Frith, skeptical and hostile, questions Forseti and challenges him for answers that, when given, she doesn’t particularly hold with any real warmth. Forseti, like Tyr, advises that he wanted to right by Frith’s mother but that he was also rejected as Frith’s mother didn’t want to depend on a man for a lifestyle as her oldest sister has. He hands Frith a lap loom and advises her that in weaving, falling into the simple mind-wandering trace that comes from simple, repetative work, her mind will learn the answer to the mysteries that her keen mind is unable to logically puzzle out. The staff is called Peacemaker and is hers also, designed to bring peace either by negotiation or, when needed, force. When held one side up, with the carvings on that end depicting a peaceful gathering, the staff can convince strangers to come together and talk and listen in peace. When held the other way up, that end carved with scenes of battle, the staff can compel people to fight valiantly and to follow her. Also when held that way the staff is able to do terrible damage to her enemies.

Frith takes the gifts, rather unwanted and, while no longer quite so skeptical, is still not happy about all of this. Forseti, realising that his daughter needs time and space, doesn’t push the issue any further. He lets his daughter go, the better for find out the truth for herself. Frith leaves and bumps into Ty. He believes. Her, not so much so, but Frith’s bond to her cousin is a great deal stronger than her desire for this to not be happening and so she goes back with him to find Hans.

Immediately on finding Hans the cousins recognise the effects of their woken giant blood, in their increased statures. Hans returns them to the Wolfs Mantle Tavern wherein in typical Ty and Frith style, the cousins want nothing more than a big fried up meal and some beer. Hans leaves them to talk amongst themselves but they call him over to fill in a few blanks.